Archive for ‘biz comm’

And by lately, you mean 10 minutes ago.

No worries, I understand. That’s the thing with effective PR—it just makes clients hungry for more.

Anyway, here’s some of what I’ve done for you lately.

• Got your public service announcements aired on radio stations around the state. Your board members heard them on the way to the annual meeting, too, which was nice.

• Wrote all the copy for all the pages (20-plus) of your website. I think the finished project looks—and reads—great. Better still? You moved up in Google searches!

• Swooped into your towns and met with dozens of your people. By the time I was done, everyone was enthused and—this is very important—on the same page. Then I got all the news media to cover your events. You can bet I was thrilled with the turnout, but I was most proud of the way your people stayed on message. You’ve got good people!

• Helped you develop a public profile for social media. And then helped you find the words and the content to make that profile come alive. That’s why it reached precisely the people you wanted to reach. And why now you and your cause have many more friends.

• Got your picture, your company, your work, your ideas featured in a glossy magazine that is read by tens of thousands of people. Why? Because I like you and I believe in you, your company, your work and your ideas.

• Wrote news releases that turned into news articles and news reports. As a result, your news was featured in newspapers and magazines. It was featured on the air and on the Web. It was reTweeted and it was shared and it was forwarded. I don’t think I’ve gotten anyone Pinned or Tumblr-ed yet, but I’ve been too busy lately to check. So maybe that, too.

Wait, what? I didn’t do all those things for you? Hey, all you have to do is ask. Just because I’ve done a bunch of things for someone else lately doesn’t mean I won’t do them for you, too. Because I absolutely will. Here at Cherry Street, you’re only a phone call from becoming our newest favorite client.

If I wasn’t so busy, I’d thank people like Tom Marks every day of the week. That’s how much I appreciate writers who scratch a spot that’s been itching for weeks.

But busy I am (and now, apparently, I also write like Yoda talks). So I’m doubly grateful to Tom for reminding me, in something recent he wrote for In Business, precisely why things are hopping around here.

What Tom wrote is a version of the adage “copy is king.” And it is. I know that. More importantly, I believe that. This is true whether the words (aka “copy”) are said or read. On a screen or over the air, it doesn’t matter. Laptops can replace newspapers and handhelds can do the same to books, but there will always be words.

Lately, though, I’d gotten too busy hurling those words up onto the screen to remember just how vital they are to life on Cherry Street.

Tom’s column is actually about content, which is different from copy—and also so related that the difference is often negligible. He urges companies to remember to focus not on flavor-of-the-moment technology but on how much their marketing still needs to have a coherent message. You know, words that actually say something. Words that matter.

Tom owns TMA+Peritus with his wife, Kathy. He also writes often and well for various publications. You can and should read more of his work at the company website.

“Long live the stuff that actually lives long,” he writes in his column about content. To which I say: You go, guy!

And thank you.

We’re too busy to do the research, but if this is not a rule it should be. (And if it is not, we hereby proclaim it the Cherry Street Rule: The Best Ones Find You.)

The best clients, ideas, friends, opportunities and, now, the best intern. They find you, not the other way around. They seem to appear on cue and make your world a better place.

Announcing Michele Hull, intern extraordinaire at Cherry Street Agency. We hadn’t been looking for an intern, but when she found us we realized we had been needing an intern for quite a while. We needed someone to wrangle media lists and install the right software on our computers. To vet some juicy prospects and keep an eye on developing stories. To weigh in, pitch in, branch out. And teach the dog to bring the Frisbee all the way back.

We got all that in Michele. We also got a talented photographer and videographer, as you can see here. And, like all the best interns, she fits right in with how we roll.

We hope she gets as much out of life on Cherry Street as we do, because sooner or later her own best clients are going to find her. No doubt the dog, thusly spoiled, will be very picky about the next intern. We’ll just have to remind him about the Cherry Street Rule.